Securing America: Bomb Fertilizer Plant

A Pakistani fertilizer producer is looking for some taxpayer help to open a plant in the United States. The problem? Its products have been found in roadside bombs that have killed U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

FOX’s Jennifer Griffin reports from the Pentagon in our ongoing series on national security:

The Pakistani fertilizer firm that Pentagon officials trace 80% of the fertilizer used in the roadside bombs wants to open a plant in Indiana using U.S. taxpayer subsidies. The U.S. military has known for nearly seven years that this one plant in Pakistan was behind the killing and maiming of U.S. troops, but has had its hands tied to stop it, according to General Michael Barbero, head of the Pentagon’s countermine agency.

(Gen. Barbero) “They did not want to change anything that they were doing. They said that they were well within their rights to do what they do.”

The Fatima group had a change of heart in January and began indicating a willingness to cooperate with U.S. officials, at about the same time that it began looking at opening a factory in Indiana.